Trial of Fear or Love?
by hinatachan the itaxnaru luver
Summary: Ryoma and his team mates are invited to a small lodge during the summer break by Fudomine's captain, Tachibana, for a few practice matches. While they are there, they will also get to experience a new tactic. The trial of Fear! Ryoma/Ibu S. Shounen-ai!
1. Chapter 1

**Back with a new fic, let's get this one started quickly!**

**Pairing: RyomaXIbu**

**Summary: Ryoma and his team mates have been invited to stay at a camp site for free but with a bit of a catch. They all must go through a trial of fear, put up by the other team, Fudomine. Both teams are put on the spot as they travel in twos, both being with someone from opposite teams, getting better acquainted in the process.**

**Warning: Comedy, Language not known to smaller kids.**

**I do not own Prince Of Tennis.

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It was like any other summer day under the sun in Tokyo, Japan. Most kids were out on the beach already, ready for the cold waters that awaited them. Most students had been asked to stay for summer school while others in their sports clubs, practiced for upcoming matches. Ryoma Echizen's tennis team was one of those few clubs. Fudomine's captain, Kippei Tachibana, had sent a letter to Seigaku's tennis team captain; Kunimitsu Tezuka, who had been honoured that Tachibana actually thought of such an idea.

After accepting their proposal, Tezuka announced the day of their departing in the team's change room after one of their many practices. Kaoru and Momshiro had come in late due to their competitive attitude of getting through the door. The team sat where they wanted to and allowed their captain to speak.

"I will only say this once, so listen up!" Tezuka had all of their attention, especially the small cheer group, Horio and his friends.

"Fudomine's captain, Tachibana, has offered us a few weeks stay at a camp lodge not far from here. It will be practice, break, Practice and then another break just afterward.

There will be no slacking, keep your guard up at all times and he's also suggested a fear trial." Everyone was really surprised to hear such a suggestion.

"Why are we having a fear trial, there won't be any girls with us." Fuji laughed softly and looked to Tezuka for an answer along with everyone else.

"It's to train your senses. When you're out on the courts, you have the tendency to train your eyes on the ball most of the time and that's where it can be crucial for you. Echizen has had this problem with Fudomine's Ibu Shinji.

The training will be needed for the upcoming matches in the next three months to come, so you have to be taught this. Your main senses consist of your sight and hearing. Patience and Reflexes are also a good strategy in most cases. Tomorrow, everyone be read in the morning, pack whatever things you need besides your equipment and we'll leave first thing in the mroning."

"What if some of us sleep in?" Everyone looked at Ryoma knowingly.

"We will drop by to wake that person up. we will not allow people to be tardy. Dismissed." Momo was the first one out, followed closely by Kaido.

Ryoma could feel the difference between the hours from morning to afternoon. He never felt this worn down in quite a while. His father was napping at his usual post and his cousin had apparently gone shopping. His cat, Karupin, was the only one to greet him at the front door. He left his shoes at the door and carried his bag of sports equipment up to his room. Karupin made it to the top of the stairs but was shut out from entering Ryoma's room. Hearing the front door opening, he raced back down the stairs to see who it was. As for Ryoma, he left his equipment in the bag but stuck a few extra T-shirts at the bottom of his bag.

The morning had come as fast as the afternoon had passed. Ryoma's question just the other day, had stuck to everyone on the team. 'What if some of us were to sleep in.' Everyone couldn't tell if this was a little prediction of Ryoma's that they couldn't figure out at that time, but now was that time to wake him up. A bus that was carrying the team, pulled to a stop just in front of Ryoma's house, and only one of them came out to greet him. Eiji, the team's highly spirited and very acrobatic player, he had a trick up his sleeve for waking Ryoma up. Momoshiro went with him just for laughs.

They played rock-paper-scissors to figure out who would ring the bell first. Momoshiro lost to Eiji and with a gloomy expression, rung the bell. The door opened, but it was not who they were expecting. Ryoma's father, Nanjiro, scratched at his head with a lazy expression and glared at the two of them.

"U-um...is Echizen home?" Momoshiro asked as the man in front of them, played with what little hair he had under his chin and began chuckling to himself.

"Maybe...and maybe not." The man slammed the door on them, leaving the two speechless.

Momo and Eiji looked at each other for a brief moment. Momoshiro felt irritated and began pounding on the door like a barbarian. From inside the house, Eiji could hear a bit of talking going on.

"Momo, let's just wait out here!" Eiji tried to calm him down just as the door was beginning to open up, revealing their objective to coming to the door in the first place.

"Ah, Momo-senpai. Sorry about that." Ryoma brushed past his older seniors and headed for the bus that was waiting for them.

"RYOMA-KUN! YOU DARE HIT YOUR DEAR OLD FATHER? RYOMA!"

Eiji and Momoshiro noticed the man was attracting too much attention for them and proceeded to follow Ryoma onto the bus. With everyone now aboard, the bus headed toward its destination. Everyone on the bus were in high spirits of their newly formed practice matches and the newly added fear trial.

Ryoma pulled his cap down and rested his eyes for a while. The bus ride there was said to be an hour or two long, so there wasn't much to do until then. Momoshiro and Kaidoh had been competing over a shogi game for only ten minutes and there was already a small fight brewing between them. Eiji and Fuji watched as Kaidoh did his irreplaceable 'Boomerang Snake' on the board.

"You stupid snake bastard! You can't put off a move like that in this game!" Momoshiro protested as he slammed one of his own pieces down on the board.

"Fushhuuuu." Kaidoh ignored the statement and continued on with the game.

Sakuno and her friend, Tomoka, were having a great time watching Ryoma's sleeping face while Horio and the others got an extra sheet from coach Ryuzaki, on the team's scheduled matchups. All three of them gasped in surprise.

"T-this is...the weirdest matchup scheme we've ever seen!" Horio interjected.

"I was expecting this. It's only proper for this to happen." He said while he nodded his head.

"What are you talking about, Horio, you didn't even know this would happen at all." Horio pouted his disagreement and sat down with disappointment.

"Tezuka. I perfected it." Inui presented Tezuka with a glass filled with red, bubbling liquid that was ready to burst at the rim of the glass.

"I-Inui, don't bring it any closer!" Tezuka tried to keep his calm as he shifted in his seat, pinning Fuji to the bus wall.

"I'm confident it tastes better then it looks-" The bus gave everyone a jolt, including Inui, who had been holding the glass of red, bubbling juice while standing out of his seat.

The juice spilled over the rim of the cup and splashed all over the front seats of the bus as well as Tezuka and Fuji's clothing. A strange sizzling sound began to occur. As Fuji looked around wondering what the noise was, hesaw that his shoulder was smoking. The smoke rose into the air as Inui got to his feet.

"I forgot to mention, the new juice has a few temporary issues to be dealt with." Tezuka scowled at Inui as he tried to air out his shirt.

"It's too bad I couldn't get to drink it." Inui returned to his seat while Tezuka inched himself away from Fuji.

The man was definitely a prodigy at things like this. To be able to drink something so horrifying, enough to burn the inside of your throat, Tezuka had no choice but to notice Fuji's great abilites. Things settled down a little afterward and everyone seemed to be anxious on getting to the camp site. Ryoma had awaken from his small nap, which was a surprise, and Kaido had won against Momoshiro during their match of Shogi.

"Shouldn't be too long now. Another ten minutes and we'll be there." Coach Ryuzaki announced.

"You hear that, Sakuno? We will finally be free from this small space and get to see Ryoma-sama's great performance!" Tomoka stated and looked behind their seat to see Ryoma, up and awake, staring back at her.

"What?" Tomoka's face heated up with embarrassment as she sat back down.

"What's wrong, Tomo-chan?" Sakuno watched as Tomoka regained her power.

"Nothing, just got caught off by surprise is all." She smacked her cheeks with the palms of her hands, leaving Sakuno confused.

A few minutes later, the bus pulled to a stop in front of a lodge-like, camp ground. Everyone picked up their belongings and followed Tezuka and Oishi to the lodge. The last ones to get off, were Kaidoh and Momoshiro. Momo saw his oppertunity to get back at the Viper from stealing his shining moment at Shogi.

Before the two of them reached the front of the bus, Momoshiro grabbed hold of Kaidoh's green bandana and quickly let it drop on the floor and rushed past Kaidoh with an intense speed. Kaido was too occupied on why Momo was in such a hurry that he hadn't realized his bandana was missing. Without any noticing of it being gone, he stepped off the bus.

"Stupid Viper!" Momoshiro called out as he raced toward the lodge doors.

"Ah, Kaidoh-senpai." Ryoma noticed that the green bandana that was on Kaido's head was missing.

"What?" Ryoma and Kaido stood there a while, looking at each other.

"Your bandana's missing." Ryoma said this and went on his way while Kaidoh began to get the just of what had happened. Seeing his mistake, he looked back in a hurry, just to see the bus leaving.

"Oi, Kaidoh! We're meeting with Fundomine now!" Momoshiro explained as he smiled at his angery team mate.

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A/n: And that's it for this chapter, be back next time to see if Kaidoh gets back at Momo and what will happen when Ibu-kun and Ryoma-kun meet! Stay tuned!


	2. Chapter 2

**Looking forward to my first day back at school after a long, and I do mean, LOOOONG, hiatus. Hope you enjoy reading these! Watching the Prince of Tennis as we speak! Ryoma's split step is a bit creepy, just my point of view anyway. **

**Warning: Contains humor, tension, bad language and Violence.**

**I don't own P.O.T [Prince of Tennis]

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Fudomine had already settled down by the time Seigaku arrived. Tachibana and Kamio greeted Tezuka and Oishi while the rest of Seigaku's team began fooling around with the different games that were set up in another room. Oishi let out a sigh of relief as the other team members began enjoying themselves like little kids. Ryoma just sat down on one of the couches that were set to make it look like a living room while Horio and the others were shown to the kitchen while coach Ryuzaki posted the matchups on a board. It wasn't long before Kaidoh and Momoshiro got fired up for no apparent reason and began their new battle of table tennis.

"I can't wait to see what the trial is like! Let's go Fuji!" Eiji proclaimed as he clung to Fuji's shirt and began dragging him out of the lodge.

'I wonder if he knows it will take place at night.' Oishi thought as he talked with Tezuka and Tachibana.

Sakuno and Tomoka were stuck making lunches for the team while some of them practiced their swings and backhands. The day went on and not one of Fudomine's team members had shown up, excluding Kamio and Tachibana. Horio and his two friends were afraid to see what Inui was doing in the back of the kitchen and dared not go anywhere near him. An odd smell had arose from where he was working and the others in the kitchen knew all to well what it could have been.

"Tachibana-san, the group is done getting ready. Should we start after lunch?" Kamio asked as his captain sat down at a table.

"Yeah. Is everyone in good spirits?" Tachibana was afraid his team would be a little bored having to scare the other team while playing tennis at the same time.

"Well..." Kamio began to say, but the lodge door bashed open, and in came the rest of Fudomine's team members.

Ibu shinji, the leader of the crazed mob, seemed cool and collected on the outside but Tachibana knew better. The captain of Fudomine crossed his arms and closed his eyes, waiting for an answer to the mess. Ryoma heard the fuss and commotion coming from the doorway and looked over. As if Ibu knew that Ryoma was watching, he withdrew from the crowd and walked over to where Echizen was sitting.

"You..." There was an odd tension in the air as the two locked eyes on each other.

"What?" Ryoma asked him.

Ryoma wasn't sure about this guy yet. He never had a chance to figure the man's personality out much except for the few mumblings he did when he was surrounded by others. On a scale of one to ten in comparing oddity, shinji was the king. The two of them glared at each other without saying another word just as Tachibana began sorting out the issue with his team mates. Feeling an intensity in the atmosphere, Momo and Kaidoh stopped playing their table tennis and looked over at Ryoma and Shinji, letting the ping pong ball fall to the floor.

"I'll defeat you in the trial, Echizen-kun." Shinji broke the tension and returned to his own squad of team mates.

"Mada Mada Dane." Ryoma put his hands behind his head and smiled.

"Hey, Echizen, don't go starting fights so fast. Save it for the trial." Ryoma got up and left with his racquet under his arm. Coach Ryuzaki shook her head in disapproval but let the incident go for now.

The day went unexpectedly fast as both teams ate their lunch quickly and headed on outside to the back yard. Both the captains looked at their sheets of pair lists and gave each other a slight nod. Both the captains called out the pairings and everyone from both sides of the teams immediatley went to their destined partner for the practice.

Momoshiro had gotten, unfortunately, paired up with Fudomine's vice captain, Kamio. Ishida, who had been tired since morning, had been paired with Seigaku's Takashi Kawamura. Fuji got partnered with Sakurai, Kaidoh had paired up with Uchimura while the two captains got paired up. Mori was stuck with Seigaku's Golden pair, Eiji and Oishi.

The captains called the last names, Ibu Shinji and Echizen Ryoma. Both of them were in shock to hear that they were being paired up for such an easy objective of a game. For these two, it was no more but a game. Tezuka and Tachibana left the two alone along with all the other pairs and began to march off into the wooded area. The ones left behind were in charge of looking after the five students who were in charge of making the dinner.

Inui was the only one from Seigaku to be staying behind, but he didn't mind it at all and looked at this as a chance to create another special drink for when they got back. Feeling mighty proud of this oppertunity, Inui went off in search of a few ingredients.

It was only the beginning of the fear trial when everyone nearby could hear the screaming Kawamura. Echizen and Shinji watched as the man in front of them ran their way. Looking over the man's shoulder they saw a barricade of tennis balls being shot from one side to the other at a very fast rate. Echizen and Shinji looked at each other in shock of seeing the ever so flaming, Kawamura, fleeing from a lot of tennis balls instead of charging through like he would normally do.

"You go first." Ryoma gave Shinji's back a slight push.

"Maybe you should go first. You're smaller." Shinji stepped aside to give Ryoma room to walk in front of him.

"Let's do this with rock-paper-scissors!" Echizen readied his fingers while Shinji looked down at him with an expressionless face.

"Fine. I'll play this childish game with you." Ryoma growled after hearing this and pushed Shinji into the wall of firing tennis balls.

Shinji ducked from the passing balls and quickly surveyed his area and the quickest routes to get him out of the way. It was a bit of a shaky route, but it was the only one that had been cleared from the passing tennis balls. Shinji looked back at Echizen and gave the boy a small smirk and headed towards the empty space. Ryoma frowned and took off after Shinji, never falling too far behind and was cautious of his steps. The older boy in front of him felt his presence and he quickly shifted his feet to a halt causing Ryoma to fall down unexpectedly.

"Hey!" Ryoma could only watch as Shinji left him behind instead of helping him up.

Shinji waved one of his hands in the form of waving good bye to the fallen boy behind him. Ryoma could only watch as Momoshiro and Kamio put their skills to the test and began bouncing the balls back with their racquets, competing with each other as they did so while following Shinji's lead, leaving Ryoma to fend for himself.

Echizen caught onto their strategy of practicing and began to use his own racquet to block the oncoming tennis balls from hitting him. He focused on the balls and blocked all of them and got to the empty space safely. Breathing a bit heavily, he set his gaze onto Shinji, the one who had left him behind.

"Stop glaring at me. You were in the wrong." Ryoma scowled at him but didn't give a remark. He would get his revenge later.

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**A/n: Sorry for not putting this up sooner, was busy with school! TBC!**


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